Use of a Mentored Creative Writing Project to Improve the Geology Education of Preservice Elementary Teachers

Journal of Geoscience Education, Jan 2006 by Lusk, Mary G, Bickmore, Barry R, Christiansen, Eric H, Sudweeks, Richard R

ABSTRACT

The Earth Science Storybook Project is being conducted with Brigham Young University's (BYU) Physical Science HOB (PS 110B) class, which is introductory geology for Elementary Education majors. Under the project, preservice elementary teachers in PS 110B are mentored by university geology faculty and geology graduate students as they author children's storybooks in earth science. The storybooks are then illustrated and made available to practicing teachers for classroom use. This is done by an interdisciplinary collaborative effort between the BYU Geology Department and the BYU Visual Arts Department, which is providing senior illustration students to illustrate the storybooks at a relatively low cost. The goal is to use the mentored writing experience as a means of improving geology content knowledge for preservice elementary teachers and fostering their positive attitudes and self-efficacy toward learning and teaching science. These goals are being assessed by (1) quantitative analysis of the PS 110B class exam scores of storybook authors versus a control group of PS 110B students in the same class who are not storybook authors; (2) a pre- and post-class Attitude Toward Science Survey; and (3) a geology teaching self-efficacy instrument. The results of the project have been positive and indicate that when preservice teachers in a science class are given an opportunity to experience personal mentoring from the teaching faculty they do experience a shift toward a more positive attitude toward science.

"Ernie the earthworm lives underground. His home is in the soil. Soil is the upper part of the ground where plants grow. It is made of dead plants and animals and tiny parts of rock. But Ernie did not know what soil was made of yet. Ernie had never thought about where soil came from; it was just there" (Berbert, 2002).

INTRODUCTION

Like Ernie the Earthworm, the first-grade student listening to these opening lines from a story designed to teach children about weathering and soil development may have never thought about where soil comes from. But as the story progresses, Ernie takes a ride on a magic dirt-bike through streams and over ocean waves, through a blowing dust storm, and to the top of a rock undergoing the weathering effects of freezing water. On this incredible ride on his magic dirt-bike, Ernie learns about how agents of physical weathering like wind, water, and ice all play a role in soil development. When the fast-paced whirling dirt-bike makes its final stop at the end of the story, Ernie is a little dizzy but excited about his newfound understanding that "ice, waves, water and wind all break rocks into smaller and smaller pieces until finally they are so small, they are not rocks anymore-they are part of the soil!" (Berbert, 2002).

The story of Ernie the Earthworm was authored by a preservice elementary school teacher enrolled in an introductory geology class at Brigham Young University (BYU). Certainly, this story and others like it could be used to teach earth science concepts to elementary school children. But could the experience of authoring such a book likewise be an effective means of helping preservice teachers learn about science? That is, could such a creative writing process foster stronger content knowledge, science teaching confidence, and positive attitudes toward science?

This paper reports on the Earth Science Storybook Project, a research project wherein undergraduate teachers-in-training at BYU were given the opportunity to participate in a creative, mentored writing activity to produce a publishable storybook designed to teach a concept in earth science. The students were enrolled in BYU's Physical Science 110B (PS 110B), which is Introductory Geology for Elementary Education Majors. Participating students were mentored by university geology faculty and geology graduate students. Collaborative efforts of senior Visual Arts students at BYU enabled the storybooks to be professional quality and suitable for distribution to practicing teachers for classroom use. Examples may be viewed at http://geologyindy.byu.edu/ESSP/htm.

The undergraduate training of preservice elementary teachers may involve only a few science courses, totaling perhaps only eight or nine semester hours. At BYU, Elementary Education majors are required to take three content courses in the sciences, all of which are introductory courses in either life science, geology, or physical science. For elementary school teachers, these introductory classes may be sufficient to provide training in science content, but the paucity of science coursework does mean that the faculty charged with the training of preservice teachers have very limited opportunities to instill within them positive attitudes toward science, an understanding of the nature of science, and a sense of obligation to convey those values to the next generation of learners.

Of particular concern are the attitudes toward science that potential teachers develop somewhere along the way and then carry with them into their careers. In our own experience with the PS HOB class, we have often heard preservice teachers make comments like, "Geology just isn't my thing," or more generally, "I'm really not much of a science person." Comments such as these are disturbing because they may indicate a tendency on the part of these students to convey negative attitudes about science to children in their own classrooms, or to avoid giving science instruction adequate classroom time (Kusnick, 1999; NRC 1996; McDermott, 1990).